Walking and Talking

We're talking in the morning, talking in evening, talking at supper time. We've seen more people in past 48 hours than we've seen in the nearly 24 months we've spent in northwest. I think we can only communicate in one venue at a time. We're talking talking talking in life, so there's just nothing left to say here. We did go for a nice hike today in a place called the Pogonip by the university. Rolling golden hills and deep redwood forest. Quiet.
Can you ever get a sense of the grandeur of these redwood giants from a photograph? I'm not sure it's possible, but that never stops us from trying. (Click on all photos to enlarge.)
There were acres and acres of rattlesnake grass. I think I must have picked up the tic here, the one we found crawling on me when we got home.
We loved this bay laurel, it was nearly as tall as the redwoods.
My twin brother and I walked along noticing birds and everything else that caught our eyes, or our imagination.
We took a close look at the coyote scat and found this tiny jaw bone and teeth. What do you think? What did the coyote eat?

What a nice couple of hours. The quiet was almost like being home. Friday is the big (BIG) party. Wish us luck.

Road Trip Day Two

We made it to Santa Cruz in the mid-afternoon. We're relishing the sultry air, the subtle flowery fragrance everywhere, the delicious moderating influence of the bay. We left Ashland at 8:00 Tuesday morning and drove 400 miles. Here's some of what we saw.

Crossing the border into California from Oregon. The fog lifts.

Mt. Shasta peeks out from behind the hills.

Shasta can be seen for nearly a hundred miles.

Ah yes, California on any day, any afternoon.

Lapis, my brother and SIL's cat, turned 20 years old on April 30th.

on the road

hawk harrassed by crow. rest stop in wa just north of vancouver.
okay. it's just about 9 pm. we drove almost 500 miles today. not a major trip, but we whine 'cause we're old. we had our dinner of rice and sauteed tofu, cooked at home last night and nuked here in our nice little motel room in ashland, and then drove downtown to walk around in central ashland. it deserves an extra chi, as in chi-chi-chi, but well done! we walked in the stunningly beautiful park right downtown along lithia creek, then shopped for food for tomorrow on the yellow brick road to santa cruz at a very nice coop. below are random pix of our trip, labeled somewhat and not in order as i'm too tired to cut and paste text. love ya all!!!





the bridge over the columbia river, carrying I5








mt mcloughlin, east of medford, ore











the columbia river, looking through the railing on the bridge between wa and ore.



our pile of stuff, ready to load. i know, not in the best focus. also, there was more stuff. taken early this am.


interesting and strange, or, interestingly strange, big sculpture alongside I5 in the willamette valley in ore. some christian symbols, but odd geometric stuff too. who knows???????

Tripping

We're driving to California for a family reunion. We've packed our pillows, teapot, and toaster. We're taking our pillows because we're creatures of habit and comfort; the teapot to make tea in our hotel room in Ashland, Oregon where we're spending Monday night; our toaster because our day always begins with tea and toast.

I think we've planned every minute of the whole week. We're taking our laptops and spending plenty of time in wifi places. So, if we see anything cool, we promise to let you know.

California, here we come.

June tomato report

this is our second report of our progress in this years great tomato race, sponsored, or originated, by the wonderful dr charles. the tomatoes pictured were started from seeds planted april 8 and transplanted early in may to the greenhouse and the cloche.
the little green in the foreground is a brandywine. behind are early oregon tomatoes to the right. also visible are basil and brocolli.
the tomatoes in the cloche are doing even better. that is a zucchini leaf. also transplanted in the cloche in early may
i highly recommend cloche gardening.
a better view of the zucchini.

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in our continuing effort to be up to date, we are testing youtube. if you couldn't see our clever cat movie, here's another chance.

Friday Cat Blogging

it has been a while since we bored you with a cat post. that's over. we didn't select this picture as the best or most flattering to bonsai (the cat) or us. it was produced by our camera when the blogger formerly known as rexroth's daughter started filming when said cat was rolling around the kitchen floor. click on the picture for the movie.

Our Robin

Pohanginapete had a post up the other day that deeply considered the individuality of an animal. He was writing about a one-eyed kingfisher that he had spotted, and who had spotted him with its one good eye. How does such an animal survive? Especially one that must navigate the waters for its food? We have wondered the same thing about an animal's ability to adapt to its particular deficits and injuries. We think about it, because we have a robin that we have watched for several months. There are many robins that congregate in our yard and bathe in the pond. They like to eat the juicy worms and bathe in relative safety. But we do have one robin in particular that we call our robin. He comes to our yard a few times a week. How do we recognize that one robin?
He has something sticking out of his chest. We can't tell if it's superficial or one of those peculiar punctures, like the nail through the jaw into the brain, but that hits just right and causes no obvious injury. We emailed our friend Dave at BLC and sent him this photo. He didn't think there was much we could do, and offered that we would probably cause more damage if we tried to capture the bird and assist it.
So, we just keep our eye out for him, and notice when he shows up. We're always glad to see him.
He reminds us that animals adapt and survive. They have resilience, persistence, and a deep desire to keep eating worms.